Norway’s $824.40 billion sovereign wealth fund purchased stakes in two office properties in Washington and San Francisco for a net purchase price of $480 million, the central bank, which manages the fund, said on Monday.
The fund, commonly known as the oil fund, will hold 47.5 percent of the properties while MetLife will hold 52.5 percent and manage the assets. The fund, the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund can invest up to 5 percent of its assets in real estate and has made a string of investments in recent years, building a portfolio that is still worth only around 1 percent of the fund………………………………………..Full Article: Source

MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, expanded its real estate joint venture with Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to $1.7 billion with investments in San Francisco and Washington.
Norges Bank Investment Management and MetLife purchased a 12-story office at 555 12th St. in Northwest Washington, according to a statement today. The Norway fund, which oversees about $830 billion, also purchased 47.5 percent of a San Francisco property at 425 Market St. from the insurer. The gross value of the two buildings is about $1 billion, according to a separate statement from Norway’s fund………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Who wants to be a millionaire? How about everybody? But we can’t all live the dream of becoming marvelously wealthy, can we?
Not in Canada we can’t. Or maybe we should say we don’t feel wealthy despite our envied economic status among nations of the world. We tend to take for granted our resource, land and water wealth but we don’t think of ourselves as being rich………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China Investment Corp., the country’s $575 billion sovereign wealth fund, favors European infrastructure and real estate as developed markets will drive the next phase of the global economic recovery.
“Europe has a lot of potential,” CIC Chairman Ding Xuedong said yesterday at a conference in Hong Kong. “It is turning from negative to positive so there should be a lot of investment opportunities.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Two of the largest financial institutions in the world may again be heading back to court as one of the most toughly fought battles since the financial crisis began looks set for another round. On December 23 last year, Citigroup lodged an appeal against a decision that had been handed down on November 26. This decision had gone against the bank, which had appealed against a previous decision to dismiss an earlier claim and compelled arbitration between it and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
Citi had lodged the appeal to the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit, according to publically available documents. There has been no published indication as to whether this appeal has been granted………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Zimbabwe’s planned sovereign wealth fund will receive a quarter of mining royalties under a Bill proposed by the government, advancing a proposal first outlined in November.
The levies will be raised from companies mining gold, diamonds, coal, coal-bed methane gas, nickel, chrome, platinum “and such other mineral that may be specified”, according to a Bill dated January 10 and released publicly on Monday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Zimbabwe’s planned Sovereign Wealth Fund will help stimulate investment in strategic sectors of the economy, including funding the huge infrastructural backlog estimated by the African Development Bank as requiring about US$15 billion.
Last week, Government gazetted the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe Bill expected to be tabled in Parliament soon. Zimbabwe still has significant challenges with regards to industrial performance, agricultural productivity, sovereign debt clearance, balance of payments equilibrium, dilapidating infrastructure and limited fiscal space………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A recent Demos article, authored by Matt Bruenig, caught me completely off guard. It was entitled, “A Spectre is Haunting Alaska - the Spectre of Communism.” “Oh, great,” I said, posting the link to Facebook. “The Lower 48 is arguing whether or not Alaska is a communist utopia again.”
Spoilers: we’re not. But we have managed to get a few things right along the way, going into our 55th year of statehood. The Permanent Fund might be our biggest success. But the other stuff we get right rarely make the headlines………………………………………..Full Article: Source